‘Talent,’ ‘Dance’ top quiet Wednesday

Reality vets win sluggish ratings race

There must have been a lot of cable-watching on Wednesday night since auds largely turned a cold shoulder to the broadcast nets’ offerings: Only reality vets “America’s Got Talent” on NBC and “So You Think You Can Dance” on Fox were able to garner good numbers.

According to preliminary nationals, “America’s Got Talent” was easily the night’s top-rated program, averaging a potent 3.4 rating/10 share in adults 18-49 and 12.1 million viewers overall in the 9 o’clock hour, after a repeat of the series did pretty well in the evening’s opening hour (2.0/7 in 18-49, 7.3 million viewers overall). Closing out the night at 10, a repeat of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” led the broadcast networks among young adults (1.6/5 in 18-49, 5.6 million viewers overall).

Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance” averaged a 2.5/8 in 18-49 and 6.3 million viewers overall from 8 to 10 p.m., placing second to NBC in its time period but winning the night for the net since NBC’s delivery in the 10 p.m. hour lowered its overall averages.

CBS ran third on the night with special repeats of Monday comedies “How I Met Your Mother” (1.2/4 in 18-49, 3.8 million viewers overall) and “Rules of Engagement” (1.2/4 in 18-49, 4.0 million viewers overall), followed by encores of its usual Wednesday dramas “Criminal Minds” (1.3/4 in 18-49, 5.9 million viewers overall) and “CSI: NY” (1.4/4 in 18-49, 7.0 million viewers overall).

ABC continues to see sluggish repeat numbers for its first-year comedies “The Middle” (1.1/4 in 18-49, 4.3 million viewers overall), “Modern Family” (1.3/4 in 18-49, 4.3 million viewers overall) and “Cougar Town” (1.0/3 in 18-49, 2.9 million viewers overall). And at 10, a special “Jimmy Kimmel Live” edition devoted to the upcoming “Twilight” movie settled for a third-place finish among the Big Three (1.1/3 in 18-49, 3.0 million viewers overall), although it was at least an improvement over ratings for originals of “Happy Town,” which had been airing in the timeslot before it was canceled.